Definitions
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun A hospital.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun obsolete A hospital.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun obsolete A
hospital .
Etymologies
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Examples
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mikeet commented on the word spitalhouse
A spitalhouse, where spital is a shortening of hospital, is a place set aside for the diseased or destitute, usually of a lower class than a hospital.
A trio of women holding hands, gaunt and thin as the inmates of a spitalhouse and attired the three alike in the same cheap finery, their faces daubed in fard and pale as death.
Cities of The Plain, by Cormac McCarthy, 1998.
Source: Michael Quinion via WorldWideWWords. July 2, 2016.
October 16, 2023